An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland

Today Grover Cleveland is mainly remembered as the only president to be elected to two non-consecutive terms. But in his day, Cleveland was a renowned reformer, an enemy of political machines who joined forces with Theodore Roosevelt to fight powerful party bosses, a moralist who vetoed bills he considered blatant raids on the Treasury, a vigorous defender of the Monroe Doctrine who resisted American imperialism.

Herbert Hoover: A Life

Prize-winning historian Glen Jeansonne delves into the life of our most misunderstood president, offering up a surprising new portrait of Herbert Hoover - dismissing previous assumptions and revealing a political Progressive in the mold of Theodore Roosevelt and the most resourceful American since Benjamin Franklin.

American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804

The American Revolution is often portrayed as a high-minded, orderly event whose capstone, the Constitution, provided the ideal framework for a democratic, prosperous nation. Alan Taylor, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, gives us a different creation story in this magisterial history of the nation's founding. Rising out of the continental rivalries of European empires and their native allies, Taylor's Revolution builds like a ground fire overspreading Britain's mainland colonies, fueled by local conditions, destructive, hard to quell.

Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge, president from 1923 to 1929, never rated highly in polls, and history has remembered the decade in which he served as an extravagant period predating the Great Depression. Now Amity Shlaes provides a fresh look at the 1920s and its elusive president, showing that the mid-1920s was in fact a triumphant period that established our modern way of life: The nation electrified, Americans drove their first cars, and the federal deficit was replaced with a surplus.

Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947

In the aftermath of World War II, Prussia - a centuries-old state pivotal to Europe's development - ceased to exist. In their eagerness to erase all traces of the Third Reich from the earth, the Allies believed that Prussia, the very embodiment of German militarism, had to be abolished. But as Christopher Clark reveals in this pioneering history, Prussia's legacy is far more complex.

The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters

From New York Times best-selling author and political mastermind Karl Rove comes a fresh look at President William McKinley, who found a message that healed his nation, pried his party away from its bosses, and extended its reach to forge a governing majority that lasted 30 years.

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels

For decades environmentalists have told us that using fossil fuels is a self-destructive addiction that will destroy our planet. Yet by every measure of human well-being, from life expectancy to clean water to climate safety, life has been getting better and better. How can this be? The explanation is that we usually hear only one side of the story. We're taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, their risks and side effects, but not their positives.

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

James A. Garfield may have been the most extraordinary man ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back. But the shot didn’t kill Garfield. The drama of what hap­pened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in tur­moil.

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism

Goodwin describes the broken friendship between Teddy Roosevelt and his chosen successor, William Howard Taft. With the help of the "muckraking" press, Roosevelt had wielded the Bully Pulpit to challenge and triumph over abusive monopolies, political bosses, and corrupting money brokers. Roosevelt led a revolution that he bequeathed to Taft only to see it compromised as Taft surrendered to money men and big business. The rupture led Roosevelt to run against Taft for president, an ultimately futile race that gave power away to the Democrats.

American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant

A major new biography of the Civil War general and American president, by the author of the New York Times bestseller A. Lincoln. The dramatic story of one of America's greatest and most misunderstood military leaders and presidents, this is a major new interpretation of Ulysses S. Grant. Based on seven years of research with primary documents, some of them never tapped before, this is destined to become the Grant biography of our times.

John Quincy Adams: American Visionary

In this fresh and lively biography rich in literary analysis and new historical detail, Fred Kaplan brings into focus the dramatic life of John Quincy Adams - the little known and much misunderstood sixth president of the United States and the first son of John and Abigail Adams - and persuasively demonstrates how Adams's inspiring, progressive vision guided his life and helped shape the course of America.

Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of FDR

A sweeping, magisterial biography of the man generally considered the greatest president of the 20th century, admired by Democrats and Republicans alike. Traitor to His Class sheds new light on FDR's formative years; his remarkable willingness to champion the concerns of the poor and disenfranchised; and his combination of political genius, firm leadership, and matchless diplomacy in saving democracy during the Great Depression and the American cause of freedom in World War II.

The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left

In The Great Debate, Yuval Levin explores the origins of the Left-Right divide by examining the views of the men who best represented each side of that debate at its outset: Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine. In a groundbreaking exploration of the roots of our political order, Levin shows that American partisanship originated in the debates over the French Revolution, fueled by the fiery rhetoric of these ideological titans.

Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy

“Almost all of the philosophical truths that I have come to know and understand I have learned from Aristotle,” says Mortimer J. Adler. This easy-to-listen-to exposition of Aristotle’s thoughts about nature, human actions, and the conduct of life confirms convictions that most of us hold, though we may not be fully aware of them. This is because Aristotle’s philosophical insights are grounded in the common experience we all possess and because they illuminate the common sense we all rely on.

Theodore Rex

The most eagerly awaited presidential biography in years, Theodore Rex tells the story of President Theodore Roosevelt in real time, reflecting the world as "TR" saw it. Full of cinematic detail, Theodore Rex moves with the exhilarating pace of a novel, yet it rides on a granite base of scholarship.

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

Among the autobiographies of great military figures, Ulysses S. Grant’s is certainly one of the finest, and it is arguably the most notable literary achievement of any American president: a lucid, compelling, and brutally honest chronicle of triumph and failure. From his frontier boyhood, to his heroics in battle, to the grinding poverty from which the Civil War ironically rescued him, these memoirs are a mesmerizing, deeply moving account of a brilliant man told with great courage.

Reagan: The Life

Ronald Reagan today is a conservative icon, celebrated for transforming the American domestic agenda and playing a crucial part in ending communism in the Soviet Union. In his masterful new biography, H. W. Brands argues that Reagan, along with FDR, was the most consequential president of the 20th century. Reagan took office at a time when the public sector, after a half century of New Deal liberalism, was widely perceived as bloated and inefficient, an impediment to personal liberty.

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness

In this lively and compelling biography, Harlow Giles Unger reveals the dominant political figure of a generation. A fierce fighter in four critical Revolutionary War battles and a courageous survivor of Valley Forge and a near-fatal wound at the Battle of Trenton, James Monroe (1751 - 1831) went on to become America's first full-time politician, dedicating his life to securing America's national and international durability.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

Described by the Chicago Tribune as "a classic," The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt stands as one of the greatest biographies of our time. The publication of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt on September 14th, 2001, marked the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt becoming president.

Worst. President. Ever.: James Buchanan, the POTUS Rating Game, and the Legacy of the Least of the Lesser Presidents

Worst. President. Ever. flips the great presidential biography on its head, offering an enlightening - and highly entertaining - account of poor James Buchanan's presidency to prove once and for all that, well, few leaders could have done worse. But author Robert Strauss does much more, leading listeners out of Buchanan's terrible term in office to explore with insight and humor his own obsession with presidents, and ultimately the entire notion of ranking our presidents.

The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey

In the best-selling tradition of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail is a major work of participatory history: an epic account of traveling the entire 2,000-mile length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way, in a covered wagon with a team of mules - which hasn't been done in a century - that also tells the rich history of the trail, the people who made the migration, and its significance to the country.

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy. Jackson's election in 1828 ushered in a new and lasting era in which the people, not distant elites, were the guiding force in American politics. Democracy made its stand in the Jackson years, and he gave voice to the hopes and the fears of a restless, changing nation facing challenging times at home and threats abroad.

John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court

John Marshall (1755 - 1835) was arguably the most important judicial figure in American history. As the fourth chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1801 to 1835, he helped move the Court from the fringes of power to the epicenter of constitutional government. His great opinions in cases like Marbury v. Madison and McCulloch v. Maryland are still part of the working discourse of constitutional law in America.

FDR

One of today's premier biographers has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is a portrait painted in broad strokes and fine details. We see how Roosevelt's restless energy, fierce intellect, personal magnetism, and ability to project effortless grace permitted him to master countless challenges throughout his life.

Audible Editor Reviews

Historian and writer John Pafford's The Forgotten Conservative: Rediscovering Grover Cleveland is a straightforward, highly informative attempt to reexamine one of America's most inexplicably overlooked presidents.

The aptly-named Grover Gardner's performance of this well-organized historical survey is well suited to the text, and his measured, highly articulate style serves to emphasize both Pafford's strong writing and Cleveland's oft-forgotten strength as a two-term president during some of America's most trying years. History buffs will find this comprehensive and engaging audiobook well worth a listen, and a fine addition to the pantheon of work about the US presidency.

Publisher's Summary

Grover Cleveland is truly the forgotten conservative: a man of dignity, integrity, and courage often overlooked by the history books. Historian and author John Pafford reveals a president who deserves more attention. Cleveland might not have presided over deeply troubled times, but he set a standard for principled leadership in office that is especially relevant today.

What did you like best about The Forgotten Conservative? What did you like least?

I am not a Cleveland scholar, but the book appears to be well-researched and does a good job of avoiding extrapolating from the known facts (for example about whether or not Cleveland fathered a child out of wedlock). I appreciate the well-crafted sentences and paragraphs which flow well.<br/><br/>I do not appreciate the intrusion of the authors' politics. This book will certainly play well on Fox News. Right or left, I prefer that biographers write a book about the person, rather than craft a biography upon which to hang their own political ideas. I do not care about the author's political views and found their frequent intrusion into the story annoying.

Would you recommend The Forgotten Conservative to your friends? Why or why not?

I would not recommend the book unless I find that other authors deal with the Cleveland life and administration poorly.

What does Grover Gardner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

What could John Pafford have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The author tells a very bland and disjointed story. It reads like a Wikipedia article more than a thoughtfully composed narrative. There are interesting side notes throughout, but the author fails to make you feel you “know” Cleveland and you get a very flat picture of the time he lived without any nuance or color. An example of this is the author begins to tell about the struggle for women’s rights and you just know there is an interesting story here, but then the author moves off into inconsequential territory.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration was fine.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Any additional comments?

I was genuinely looking forward to this book. It’s about a man and a period of American history that is often overlooked and I was looking forward to the seeing the period through this man. Unfortunately the book fails as both a history and a story. <br/><br/>As a history it’s little more than a casual reciting of events with little or no analysis. It’s definitely a political history, with little social history unless it bears on religion or economic history except as it impacts political events. The author almost completely ignores the major formative period of Cleveland’s life, his time as mayor of Buffalo, gives it a very cursory overview and make little attempt to connect Cleveland’s experiences as mayor to his later actions as President. This lack of depth is present in the coverage of his time as governor and generally throughout the book. Space could not have been an issue because the author makes time to narrate meaningless information such as the details of the 1884 nominating balloting. <br/><br/>The politics of Cleveland’s presidency are recited, but again there is a noticeable lack of depth. Just when the author gets you interested in learning more, he cuts the narrative off, sacrificing depth and without any meaningful analysis. The author spends more time discussing the leadership of the Vanderbilt railroads than he does on Native American relations. As a narrative political history, the contests of 1888 and 1892 and the events around them would have been a great place for the author to center a meaningful discussion, even a platform for the entire book to grow out of, but the author gives the same flat “matter of fact” style surface survey of the events that is the found throughout the book. Again space couldn’t have been a factor because the author makes room for meaningless facts such as the composition of Congress and a survey of cabinet members in the administration. <br/><br/>The objectivity of the book as a history is questionable. The author tends to omit information that would reflect negatively on Cleveland, except in the places where it serves the political point of view of the author. For example the author omits any discussion on the causes of the depression of 1893, but takes the time to discuss the treatment of Cleveland’s oral cancer taking place around the same time. While Cleveland’s cancer doesn’t impact on history in any real way, the depression of 1893 was the most severe depression up to this time. In other cases the author omits any discussion of alternate points of view or dismisses them with pejorative comments while praising others without explanation. Coxey's Army is basically branded as a greedy ignorant mob while Chief Justice Fuller is praised without exception even to the point of practically ignoring the landmark case of Plessy v. Ferguson.

Over the last year, I've read 25 biographies, and this was the worst. The primary issue is that no attempt at objectivity was made. The author has made his opinions and politics abundantly clear, and leaves out any explanation of value statements on the apparent assumption the reader already agrees with his statements of any decision being good or bad. The narrative went between awkwardly conversational and sounding, as another reviewer stated, like a Wikipedia article. I will definitely be advising others to find a different biography of President Cleveland.